The Mythic Dimension
In the fourth chapter, Mythic Dimension I was happy to find a brief section on poetry. The portion on “The Road goes ever one” I had already read the series of essays titled “Tolkien’s legendarium” from my reference material for the research paper. Shippey mentions as well how Frodo has changed the lines and manner of reciting Bilbo’s poem to better suit the uncertain situation concerning the Ring and his role in bearing it. In the day and age of copyright laws this editing of words by others or putting different words to the same tune does not pan out, but in the Lord of the Rings this is praised and reflected on as a unique form of self expression exclusive to Hobbits. I believe this new form of active poetry to be very fascinating.
The parallel between Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the events of the Lord of the Rings is something I had never made the connection to on my own. Having read Macbeth in 11th grade and the lord of the ring this summer I am surprised at all the correlations. Dunsinane hill’s similarity to the Ents and the Criteria for killing a Nazgul and I look farther and Farther into Tolkien’s work I am surprised to notice how well thought out even the smallest details seem to be. For example the sword(specially created to kill the undead) that Merry carries from the barrow-wight in the first book to its role in dealing a sever blow to the king of the Nazgul seem so intentional and overshadowed by the finishing blow dealt by Eowen. Another line from King Lear “come not between a dragon and his wrath” and “come not between a Nazgul and his prey” shows the true origin of where Tolkien gathered the phrase. Because of this I have to believe that Tolkien was quiet aware of the ties he made to Shakespeare’s classic works, and probably made them intentionally.
The dead warriors in the water I had never fully understood till this chapter. I had always written off their existence as well preserved bodies by the bog and the lights as say methane escaping from rotting organic material. When Frodo falls into the water we see a different perspective of the men as malicious spirits. It never occurred to me that the bodies he sees aren’t really there anymore but an illusion to lure the unwary into their grasp, perhaps they were there at one time but they should have probably long since decayed. Tolkien includes many instances of psychological war fare and seem very sensitive to where certain characters or groups of people were demoralized. Shippey seeks to explain the existence of the long deceased soldiers by claiming that the evil preserved them to be used as a reminder of war and that all good done becomes futile in the end. Something Frodo is at that moment trying to repair as he approaches Mordor.
